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8/31/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 31, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.The golf clubs are all packed away for rolling. the monthly pass ran out today. Trying to play in the massive crowds this weekend would be foolish anyway. Fall has sent its advance group to the area and the vegetation is beginning to seriously change to a new season.There is big doings over in the waterpark area this weekend. The trails will be full of kids on bike getting in last HURRAH. The OFM has big plans to get all our stuff ready for travel on Wednesday. Big adventures will be in short supply but the excitement level about the rolling date will be screaming up.What do you do next if your Bucket List is all scratched off?There is a new town in the park. It is Toadstool Town and it sprang up overnight on an old pile of pine needles and other vegetation.

We grabbed a couple of the last hold out flowers in the area. Getting good flower pictures is very quickly coming to a close around here. Here is a trumpet flower.

And we have some very delicate purple flowers. They were about the size of a nickle.

The OFM just told me that getting ready to roll is a great way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/30/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 30, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.HOW THE OFM PLAYS GOLFIt is time for some golf lessons from the OFM. There is two important sounds while playing golf. The first is Whack. That is the sound the golf club makes when it hits the golf ball.The next sound is thwack. That is the sound that the ball makes hitting trees, cars, fence posts and other things.So lets play one hole on the easy hole of the golf course.The OFM tees it up and looks down the wide open very sunlit fairway. He tees his ball and aligns in the direction of his shot path in hopes the ball will go that way. WHACK.....THWACK..THWACK..THWACK. Well this is good he has hit his ball into the shade and in familiar territory. Any body can play golf from the fairway but the OFM likes a challenge.As we arrive at the location of the golf ball the OFM glares, I mean looks, at what he faces next.

Yep he has a serious challenge. The club is selected. Alignment is carefully made. The swing is made. Whack............thwackthwack is the resonating sound from the two trees close to the green. The ball could have gone toward the flag on the green but that would have been too easy. The situation is studied.

OK, now we have it made. A simple little pitch shot with the chosen (but probably wrong) club is all that is needed. The swing is made and it yields a little whack. The ball skims the grass leaving a smoking trail of fried worms across the bunker, green and down into the fairway in front of the green.

This is great, now the OFM can use his putter and not get in any worse trouble. It goes well from here and into the hole in only four more strokes. So there you get to see the great fun he has playing golf, especially in the trees. He must like the trees since he spends so much time amongst them.We mentioned to him a few years ago that if he played the whole round with just his putter his score would be a lot lower. He said no thanks, the trees are his friends and he likes to visit them. Now you can understand why the OFM thinks playing golf is a wonderful way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/29/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 29, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.About a year ago the OFM Meandering Team was wandering down a path and took a picture of some fungi. We named it Biskits and gave it a place in the blog that day. Here it is.

Now a year later the Team was meandering around doing nothing worthwhile until the OFM realized that we had been here before. a bit of looking around and lo and behold here was Biskits a year later. The photo was taken again. To the best of our recollection we had never seen one year old fungi before. In fact we thought that they rotted away totally in a couple of months. We were wrong on that assumption. Here is Biskit one year later.

The OFM got a wild hair in his nose and ordered a couple of window decals for Sierra. For those that do not recognize them the left one is for the 82nd Airborne and the one on the right is for the 101st Airborne. Those are the two units the OFM served in during the Viet Nam war.

The reflection in the window came out really nice. That is the OFM in disguise as a normal human taking the picture. Behind him is the campground office, rest rooms and laundry building. This shows to go you that when taking pictures you need to pay attention to the backgrounds you are also photographing. The heat and humidity are still being very nasty to humans here so we have been spending a lot of time indoors in the AC in our effort of trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/26/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 26, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.That day of grandkidding certainly did a great job of creating sore muscles and joints on OLD Grampa. Today was an easing along day. A day of relaxing and dreaming of what is next was welcome.

One thing the OFM has been planning on doing for quite a while is to trim an inch and a quarter off his golf clubs. That would make them fit his short fat squatty body much better. That took about two hours to do. He very meticulously went over the fitting several times to be sure it was the correct amount. There is no putting it back on when a piece is cut off. The deed got done but he was too lazy to hit the golf course to try them out in the 92 degree high humidity weather.After some more being plain lazy he finally started on a colored pencil picture. That quickly proved to be not fun in colored pencil for him. The swap was to watercolor pencils and things went much better and definitely more fun. It is amazing how a painting can start out with an idea. Then by the time it is finished the painting has no resemblance to the original idea. Tonight we get to laugh at Beach Camp Morning.

Beach Camp Morning

It was nice to do some attempted artistic stuff for a change. As you can tell the OFM likes paintings that can be done in one day instead of needing weeks or months to produce a painting.

The best part is painting pictures is a great way of being in the A/C while trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/24/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 24, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.The last couple of days have been a trial for the OFM joints and muscles. He is on a tear doing a deep cleaning of the Castle. What he did not realize was the amount of flexing and contortions that would be required of his ancient worthless physical abilities. So far in three days he has nearly finished the bathroom.He manages about an hour and a half then absolutely has to rest for an hour at least. Remember the Castle is small with very minimal aisle ways. That means lots of kneeling and standing nearly on your head as you fit your body around that corner with a light in one hand and the cleaning implement in the other. Your head becomes the object leaning on something to keep you upright in the effort. Very quickly your neck is complaining and some joint is screaming “HURRY UP FOOL”. What it boils down to is that the next morning as you attempt to roll out of bed, muscles you did not know humans have wad up into little cramped knots and you writhe in odd dance moves. Have you ever had neck cramp so bad it sucks your chin down to your knees while you try to stand up??? It is not a good way of trying to have tooooo much fun.Here is a picture of the cubby hole that the toilet was shoe horned into.

We had to convince the OFM to shove his head between the cabinets on either side and curve his neck enough to see the back of the cabinet while kneeling on one knee. Then grab the mirror with his left hand and squeeze his right arm into the middle of this mess of human parts with a brush to clean the cavity holding toilet flushing parts while watching his work in the mirror. Oh and by the way you can forget about that non-necessity called breathing while doing this. After a couple of times of doing this exercise the eight square inches back there will be moderately clean. Sort of.After that mess it seemed easy to do a handstand with one arm while holding a bucket of wash water with your toes above you while your free hand cleaned another spot. Then after that was finished you can hop right up pleased you got that part done. We are joking about the hop right up part. Needless this will take a lot longer than he thought it would.How about some good news? The OFM put together a nice supper tonight. He chopped up two pork chops and put them to slow cooking in a pot. When they were nearly done a can of BBQ flavored beans was added and the mex wa simmered until it was ready to eat. In the meantime some pre-chopped coleslaw mix was opened and some placed in a bowl. A new pretty good coleslaw dressing was opened and mixed into the slaw with fresh ground coarse black pepper.Then we went back to the stove and added garlic powder and some fresh ground black pepper to the beans and port chops. We had planned to add some fresh chopped yellow onion to the beans immediately after cutting off the heat but they were forgotten.

This turned out really well and there is enough to combine with something tomorrow for a meal. The OFM is not in a class with George Yates ( https://geosuzie.blogspot.com/ ) when it comes to food preparation but you can tell by his Buddha Belly that he does OK. With a little luck the Teams will find something non-acrobatic tomorrow for trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/22/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 22, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.They are back causing the Teams trouble. The explosion of yellow has been huge and the effect on our respiratory systems is even bigger.

Cough, gag every where we go around here. But soon (2 weeks) we will be back on the salt water Texas coast where everything is always perfect. If you buy that, the teams have lots of pristine things to sell you at bargain prices.There is a magic culvert that goes under a walking trail near here and hole 4 of the golf course. Flint Creek has a small finger that heads over to the golf course. A moderate innocent looking culvert goes under the walking trail/maintenance road to allow the golf course lakes to have water. This picture is from on the road looking toward the golf course.

But this is no ordinary culvert. Nope it is a culvert with special magic powers. When the water leaves Flint Creek it is ordinary creek water. On the other side of the culvert the water has the special property of pulling golf balls to it. The evidence is very plain. Frequently the OFM hits his golf ball perfectly, as usual, to go over the water but the golf ball is drawn in to disappear forever. What we do not know is what the water does with the golf ball. But we know without a shadow of a doubt something happens during that culvert transition because no golf balls are ever drawn into the Flint Creek side of the culvert.This is just one of the mysteries in the woods of Flint Creek. For fun this morning the OFM’s right leg calf muscle decided the OFM needed exercise hopping around on one foot when he awakened and jumped out of bed. So the right calf decided to have the worst muscle cramp it could create to entertain the Teams with the OFM dancing effort. For some reason that leg is still very sore and getting in the way of things like walking.Of course that was not enough fun so the OFM decided to slip in the bathroom on his right leg so he could fall far enough to SLAM his left shin into the top edge of the bath tub. The result was a knot about four inches in diameter and 3/4 inch high. Now,five hours later, the knot is nearly gone but the bruise is starting to be noticeable. So we guess it all evened out with both legs having extra excitement today. Tomorrow we will do other things for trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/21/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 21, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.From the minute he rolled out of bed until now it has been a very busy day. The 3.5 mile walk went well and we met a nice lady at our turnaround point. After a short visit we went on our separate ways. Most folks on the morning walk barely acknowledge you went past but this lady was a very pleasant soul and made the morning start well.During the walk the OFM imagination was working overtime. We have a few pictures that require some real serious visualization we think. The OFM says nope because he could see the item of interest immediately. This one was an ugly critter rising from the brush alongside the trail. Can you see the monster’s eyes just above the round mouth where its forked tongue is streaking out to try to capture the OFM.

Other folks get to take pictures of the pretty flowers and butterflies but the OFM Teams get to take pictures of monsters and nasty caterpillars. We do not know the breed of this ugly bug but it certainly did not look like a critter the OFM wanted to sit around and play with for fun and frolicking.

Then this afternoon the OFM realized he had some boneless chicken chunks defrosting. He checked and they were ready for cooking. So we put on his Chef hat and set him to working. The chicken was cut into large bite size chunks and set to boiling/steaming while other participants in the stew were prepared. Another Knorr package was found in a cabinet. It was a Broccoli and Cheese mix which sounded good to add to the chicken. The last of our celery(chopped) and two carrots (sliced) were also invited to the feast. Fresh cracked black pepper and garlic powder finished the seasoning. Thirty minutes of slow steaming/barely boiling and it was ready. It made enough for four meals total. Yep is was better than it looked.

And finally. A phone call came in tonight to confirm the new arrangements will work out. What new arrangements? The new on the road date arrangements. September 5 is our new rolling date. We are still heading for Rockport Texas for fishing, beach combing and general messing around until after Christmas. We are planning on making a few short trips during our stay in Rockport to nearby places for additional fun.It seems that now at 2130 tonight things are finally calming down from all the effort at trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/19/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 19, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.It was not a day to start with wild excitement. In fact it was so benign we cannot even recall what we did beside a bit of grocery shopping. But after the hamburger in Priceville things changed suddenly.The OFM headed to the Burger King over there and relaxed while eating his hamburger and then eased out the door toward a fishing area on the road back to the Castle. What he was needing (and we actually mean NEEDED ) was casting accuracy practice. When we get back to Rockport sloppy casting will result in a lot of lost terminal tackle. Yep he proved he needed practice.But he got lucky also. While cleaning out a tangled line and lure mess, he released the lure down to the water by a floating log. Then started to untangle the knot in the line when with a big splash and a WHAM a bass hit the lure and the fight was on. Landing a fish by hand lining braid is dangerous and can reward you with severe cuts, but the OFM was lucky the small 12 inch bass came up on the pier easily, flopped around and came off the two treble hooks. So the OFM rewarded the good behavior with a gentle shove back into the lake. The rest of the practice session was not interrupted by fish. Then we headed on back home.When we got home there was an email from a friend with fantastic information we are were needing to help with some longer term and more remote boondocking next spring. Now we feel much more comfortable with the planning/hoping we are doing.Then while digging through the computers innards for some other long stored information, the OFM ran across the family letters he wrote when he first started full time travel. They make for some interesting reading. Here is one of the pictures from the first adventures after the OFM left Washington. The Teams and OFM did not exist for another six weeks at that time.

So a bland morning followed by a fulfilling and busy afternoon and evening really made it a good day of trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/17/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 17, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.It is a mystery to the OFM Teams what is so special about the “tiny house” stuff. Most of the ones we have seen in advertisements and reports are much larger than the Castle. None of them are appointed as well as a bottom line travel trailer. Yet all of them we have viewed have a lot more floor area than the Castle.We have been very comfortable in the Castle for a bit over eleven years now and have no interest in changing our living quarters to larger quarters. Our 149 square feet of living area handles all our wants and needs well. In our thinking, the Castle and its minimum upkeep needed gives us EXTRA time for trying to have tooooo much fun all over the country.

8/16/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 16, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.The arising came very early this morning. For some weird reason the OFM rolled his fat lazy body out of bed way early this morning. Before you knew it he was ready for the morning walk.How early was it? Well just hang in there and we have a picture of how early. He headed out the front road of the campground to the path that parallels the golf course and Point Mallard Drive. The pace was brisk but not harmfully fast. The air temperature was 77 which seemed cool compared to the last few days.When we cleared the entrance to the golf course the sun was just breaking over the trees. A little ways on down the path the OFM declared the view worth a picture to prove he really was up that early for a change.

Then we headed on along the path until we came to the maintenance road entrance. This is the road that goes around the golf course. At the entrance we took a right and followed the road on along enjoying the early scenery. There was a good amount of folks coming our direction as they finished up their four mile walk. We got along the road to the lake area and stopped to take this picture with the sun just above the tree tops now.

A slight breeze was just starting to happen and we appreciated it for the rest of the walk. The OFM seemed to be feeling decent so we kept on walking past our normal turn around point at the lake drain. A little ways past is where the long through the woods trail intersects the maintenance road and ends. We were sure he would turn back at the intersection.Wrong again as usual. He turned left onto the trail and headed on towards the Tennessee River.

He walked briskly for several minutes until we got to the spot that you can see a big chunk of the river. There he paused and rested a bit.What got us to moving pretty quick was the large number of three pound (it sounded like cannon balls) hickory nuts slamming their way down through the trees and burying themselves in the dirt around us. The recollection of the sycamore seed from a couple of days ago was still fresh on the OFM’s mind.So we started retracing our path back a a quick pace until we got out of the tree bombardment area. Back on the road the OFM was still setting a higher than normal pace until we got back on the path along Point Mallard Drive where he suddenly stopped and mentioned that it was time to slow down as his hip was starting to pain him. We all agreed with him on that one.At this point he mentioned that his new shoes were doing very well.

Of course they were not new since they were purchased about three years ago in expectation of his former Merrell’s to wear out back then. They didn’t. If these hold up like the last pair, he will be wearing them for at least eight years daily. Really good comfortable shoes are hard to find.Meanwhile we were off on a good speed meander back to the Castle. The wonderful breeze held up all the way back. The breeze made it a great way of starting a day of trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/15/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 15, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.The breeze was almost nonexistent as we crossed the creek bridge. It looked like the perfect time for some reflection photographs. The OFM wandered over to the side of the bridge where he liked the scene of the dead tree leaning over the water and the perfect reflection below from the water.A couple of pictures of the reflection were taken. Then they were brought up in the camera screen to check how well they came out. During the review a bird was noticed in the reflection that the dufus had not noticed in real life. A quick look up showed the bird watching what the Old Fool Man was doing. The OFM grabbed a couple of more pictures before the bird flew away to a safer location.This is the reflection view and as you can see the bird shows up rather well so the OFM should have seen the real bird on first glance.

This is the picture of the real bird up in the tree watching the silly antics down on the bridge.

Anyway the old fool had a good time taking pictures that morning as a way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/14/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 14, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.A miserably hot day it was. The temperature hit 92 with 80+ humidity and no breeze most of the time. But the morning walk went well mostly. The OFM had a bit of gimp left from the extended walk yesterday so it was more of a meander walk of only 2 miles this time.We did notice some of the wild grapes were ripening enough to fall from the vines way up in the trees.

Self Picking Grapes

Most likely there will be lots more in the near future. Some of the home wine makeers need to be out here harvesting grapes like the OFM did in his long ago past.On our way back to the Castle we hit a stretch of shady meandering. The OFM took off his hat to let his bald head cool even better. One of those evil tall trees took the opportunity to whack him with a pointy seed ball right on his noggin.

We were thankful the stickers had not hardened completely. Yep the hat went back on his head immediately. No damage was done but he definitely jumped like he had been shocked. It was funny.Back at the Castle lunch time rolled up close and the OFM decided the best use for a couple of cooked pork chops was some stew of random ingredients. The participants in the stew turned out to be chopped pork chops, pinto beans, celery, and a “Spanish Rice” package from Knorr. Fresh cracked black pepper of course was needed. In about twenty minutes it was ready for the OFM to chow down and HE DID CHOW DOWN.

Pork Chop Stew

I guess it worked out to be a pretty good day for an OFM trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/13/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 13, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.I was an amazing event this morning. The OFM actually rolled out of bed earlier than normal, got breakfast eaten and was out the door before it got hot for a morning walk. We figured he was sleep walking. Then to our amazement he set a quick pace well above meandering. What is wrong with this fool?Anyway he kept the speed up and took a familiar route but looped it in the opposite direction from usual. The temperature was warm about 74 F. Absolutely no breeze at all. Soon the sweat was flowing gently but there was no let up. When we cut back along Flint Creek headed back to the Castle he stopped long enough to take this picture.

His comment was “Sure a lot of hanging pine needles this year.” Whooosh and we were moving on. Now please understand we were not near running but definitely a good bit faster pace than a meander.A nice bit on along and this mile marker came into view.

That means we have more than that left to get back to the Castle. Hmmm. We hope he can make it.So we are zooming along next to some thick underbrush along Flint Creek when the OFM dug his heels in for a sliding stop EEEEeeeerk. What’s wrong we asked? He said “I just saw an alligator in the creek!” So we very carefully eased out way back a ways to check it out. Sure enough there was something reminding us of an alligator partially visible through the thick brush. The OFM ( he of many years of alligator experience) unlimbered the camera and got ready for a quick picture and fast exit. He eased through the brush. There was about ten feet of brush until he could stick his arms through to a somewhat open spot and grab a couple of pictures. Then we waited to see what was going to happen.

Then we did a bit of careful pushing brush aside and could see well enough to see that we were a couple of fools again. But at least it was an exciting moment.From here the OFM decided to slow down some since his hip was starting to give pain to him. That was good to see him be wise for a change. The rest of the trail and across the large parking lot at the water park was uneventful. And we comfortably made it back to the Castle with a camera with lots more pictures in it. The best we could tell today’s walk was nearly three miles. The heat was building when we returned but the Teams agreed it was a nice walk in search of trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/12/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 12, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.When the OFM was checking our equipment for readiness for rolling, he found that the trailering mirrors were missing a piece to hold the passenger side mirror in place. That will not work well. The search was complete and resulted in the cleaning of the last storage compartment very well.An internet search revealed that the part was available in a small parts “kit” for the mirror set. It was ordered and arrived yesterday.

Now all that is needed is a small bit of assembly and the mirror situation will be all ready to roll in September.While we were on the morning walk today it was noticed the community bubble bath tub was ready for every one to get cleaned up.

That could be a really interesting way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/11/18

It was a trail to the foot bridge that the OFM has traveled often for seven years now. The never heard here before tinkling of the small waterfall was new and needed the best GrannyJ checking out that we could give it. So the OFM eased over toward the sound with the camera at the ready. The nice gravel surface was well packed down. The border rocks about the size of basketballs had been clambered on often through the years of stopping here for photos.The boulder chosen to stand on was tested and stayed still and firm. The OFM carefully stepped up and stood balanced on the near waterside boulder and looked and strained to get a view of the new waterfall. It was not to be seen. So the OFM very carefully turned a little to step down onto the packed gravel that was between the boulders. The small collection of leaves on the ground looked normal.Then as his right foot went through the thin leaf layer into nothing, the OFM knew he was in trouble. Of course there was nobody in sight at this moment. His clad in shorts right leg slid along the boulder lightly scrapping skin off as his foot continued its journey to China it seemed. Meanwhile the part of the OFM that was not involved in sliding down the hole to China was flailing mightily with a camera in one hand and the other hand grasping for some sturdy air to steady himself. Here is a tip for our readers. There is NO air sturdy enough to steady your self.For the next little while the OFM was wondering if he fell over would his leg would break off as his fat oversize body fell down the rocks into the lake. Oh that was not a pretty thought.About then his foot hit the bottom of the hole and stopped nearly knee deep. The OFM arm without the camera managed to brace on another boulder while his imprisoned leg rubbed back and forth on the now bloody rock. Did you know a rock with fresh blood on it lets your leg slip around on it very easily? So anyway now the huge fat body is stabilized knee deep in a hole next to the lake where the snakes come out to play at night. A quick all to well experienced exam of the situation showed that the least lethal way out was to lay in a certain direction on the boulders and gently pull the leg out of the hole before something mean chomped on it.The removal started and the blood lubricated rock surface allowed an easy removal of the leg. A bit of examination showed no serious damage to the leg. A bit of drinking water was used to wash the minor but free bleeding wound. The OFM was hot and sweaty so the blood smeared around nicely. His nice white handkerchief worked well as a wash cloth. More examination showed the most damaged part was his ego. The other miracle was that nobody had come along to laugh at his foolishness. So the Teams got the OFM on his feet and decided that he should not do this again as a way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/10/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 10, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.On the dedicated exercise trails throughout the park there is mileage markers about every quarter mile. Some times in the Teams meanderings we found it nice to know how far we had meandered in relation to our water supply. Here is a picture of one of them. It happens to be the one mile marker on a frequent trail we use.

When that marker shows up we know that the turn around point for us is not too far. Notice the woods are fairly thick on the sides of the trail. That means we seldom have significant wind along the trail. In the hot weather you need to be off the trail by about 0930 to prevent heat trouble.Sometimes we find things that seem neat to us. In this creek marsh of sluggish water we saw this small turtle on a log all by itself. It did not seem to be bothered by the OFM flopping around in the underbrush trying to get a picture. This was cropped from a maximum range telephoto picture the OFM took. It was amazing that the turtle just stayed there in spite of all the racket the OFM made.

And on the way back to the Castle a stand of red crepe myrtle trees or whatever they are were blooming nicely. So the OFM worked his magic and got a nice picture to grace the blog pages tonight.

We are due back in Rockport, Tx to a confirmed camping spot on October 1. We will be hitting up the eye doctor to find out whats up with the OFM’s left eye. We are planning on being there until New Years Day. What happens after then is anybody’s guess. Now we need to go get rested for tomorrow. We only had two naps today and we need the rest for getting out tomorrow and trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/7/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 7, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.There has not been a lot of excitement in the campground lately. In fact there are quite a few empty slots available for folks.A couple of days ago we had a great finale to the day over above the soccer field.

It has been hot enough that it is getting in the way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/6/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 6, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.House cleaning was the big excitement for the day. It was definitely time since we had to empty the shop vacuum three times before the effort was complete. We use a shop vac since it has to do duty for Sierra and the Castle.The day was moseying along just fine until about 1700 when the strong storms came by for a visit. The lightning was very severe which, of course, caused considerable noise. The rain was moderate but sufficient to wet everything down well. So naturally after the fried pork chop, potato salad and cole slaw supper the OFM whipped up, we had to take a walk around the park. There was not a lot of activity going on now that public school has started.Over by the creek we did find a bit of grass in bloom to photograph.

Between the heat and the humidity the OFM cannot handle high activity outside during most of the day, so we have been helping him check out places to roll when we leave Decatur. Does anybody think those “plans” have a chance of happening? Maybe we will find somewhere to try having tooooo much fun.

8/5/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 5, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.Not a lot happened today. The OFM tried to go for a walk a couple of times today but the heat sent him back into the A/C. So he spent a lot of time trying to plan the rest of the year for us. It was an interesting effort at worthless frustration. In the end we found a picture from a couple of evenings ago of a bird hoping for supper to swim by.

It was somewhat hidden from the path but the OFM worked the camera through the vegetation to get the picture. Sometimes he does well but not often.A new header picture was brought in from the internet for us all to enjoy.And that is the story of today’s effort at trying to have tooooo much fun in the heat.

8/4/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 4, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.The OFM eyes popped open at 0515 this morning. We thought he was very ill but nope he just woke up. With that difficult item out of the way he took care of morning business and got the laundry ready. Across the street he went and put the laundry to working.Breakfast was next as we waited for the washing machine to finish. Then back across the street to move the clothes to the dryer.Then a bit of straightening up of the Castle and Sierra. Some messing with golf clubs was next and it was time to retrieve the clothes. The folding and storing went well and YEA it was all done and it wasn’t even 0730 yet. What in the world was going on with that nut? We have no idea but we did stay out of the way and let him go.We had lunch with the family at a place where the OFM tried some spicy Buffalo Wings. But the best part was visiting with family and watching Gavin super speed scarf a three scoop ice cream cone down for dessert.

King of the Cone

There was a car load of well fed folks that headed back to the house. After a bit of visiting and frolicking the OLD FAT BLOB headed for the Castle and let the others do their home chores.Back home it was an inside day since the temperature was 94 in the shade of the pine trees. The OFM does not go out in that temperature with high humidity and no breeze to play. Along about 1600 the OFM took a golf club to the golf course across the road and hit a golf ball six times and decided he was hot enough to just go on home. That two weeks of cooler weather disappeared.That means we will have to find other things to do for trying to have tooooo much fun until it cools off some more again.

8/3/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 3, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.On a recent walk we noticed that the vegetation was getting a tired look to some of it. There is a lot more dying leaves on the ground than a week ago. The hot weather has been more benevolent the last two weeks but came back in force today. Here is a picture of a place on one of the paths around the park of a pile of fallen leaves.

That scene is repeated now and then along all the pathways but soon will be a mass fall out if last year is any indication.Today has been hot enough that we took care of some inside things and spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we will do when the weather gets cooler. Our rent runs into early September but the weather prediction is hot weather until mid September. Since out camping is paid for in New Mexico until the end of April 2019, the OFM had a great time trying to figure out if we could go there for a while. We are still not really certain about doing that. At least we have a nice golf course to enjoy here in Decatur when we are not playing Grandpa. Either of those jobs are really good for trying to have tooooo much fun.

8/1/18

Adventure Location:Decatur, Al.Adventure Date:August 1, 2018Click a pic to enlarge it.Our plans have been firmed up and the first part paid for now. As part of that effort the OFM was looking at last year blog entries because his feeble mind could not recall much about it. As it turns out we did not head back to Rockport Texas last year until the end of October. From the blog that turned out to be a good thing weather wise. It had finally cooled somewhat when we got there and the fishing in November was still good.It appears that this year it will be the same situation. About the time the golf weather gets too cold up here in North Alabama the Texas coastal weather gets a bit cooler. We may have a pattern for future travels in the making. The last two weeks here in Decatur have been mostly pleasant weather wise. Warm and sometimes hot for a couple of hours but the mornings and evening have been excellent for walks etc.Recently the OFM has developed an affinity for peanut butter on celery for a snack in the late evening. We do not know where that came from but it is definitely here in force.

We do not let him use a knife to put the PB on the celery. He would lose all the fingers on both hands if we did that. So a spoon is his utensil that is allowed. He says that is great since he can pile the peanut butter higher with a spoon.That guy is always finding some way or trying to have tooooo much fun.